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Notes12/19/2021
Drseid
819 Reviews
Drseid
1
Portrait of a Lady, Light?...
Meraviglia goes on with a red berry accord with underlying rose immediately detectable before quickly transitioning to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart the rose takes the fore, now showcasing its lush, red jammy nature with aromatic patchouli, modestly synthetic smelling woody incense and peppery coriander spice support. During the late dry-down the rose and coriander vacate, unveiling slightly sweet amber melding with remnants of the now soft patchouli and softened woods through the lengthy finish. Projection is good to very good, and longevity outstanding at over 15 hours on skin.
As soon as I applied Meraviglia on skin I knew I liked it but thought it smelled vaguely familiar. It didn't take more than a minute or so before I made the obvious connection to the perfume it was emulating -- my favorite, Portrait of a Lady by Frederic Malle. Many perfumes have tried to "go there," and have failed miserably in the process. The difference here is Meraviglia for the most part comes darn close. While I normally would just focus on the positive and negative subjective aspects of Meraviglia, it smells similar enough to PoaL that I find myself forced to compare the two throughout. To that end, Meraviglia has got the high quality jammy rose and patchouli combo found in PoaL down quite well, even adding in some peppery coriander spice to emulate the same kind of subtle peppery zing found in the original (albeit the peppery aspect is more prominent here). Where things fall apart just a hair, however, is in Meraviglia's use of synthetics for the woody-incense component in the heart. Using synthetics is nothing new in perfumery, and Portrait of a Lady uses them too. Here, they are just a bit out of control, with the woody incense *smelling* synthetic, although only just. The late dry-downs of the two perfumes are a bit different, with Meraviglia focusing much more on its amber aspect than Portrait of a Lady. It is a fine overall effort that comes up just a bit short in comparison with "the best of the best," but smells spectacular when considered on its own. The bottom line is the approximately $300 per 100ml bottle Meraviglia is one of only a couple perfumes that come close to successfully emulating my favorite perfume's winning formula, earning an "excellent" 4 stars out of 5 rating and a recommendation with some reservation. The only reservation is you can buy Portrait of a Lady for not much more money. That said, those who have a decent budget but not quite enough to afford the superior smelling Malle, and/or prefer less projection should be quite happy with Meraviglia.
As soon as I applied Meraviglia on skin I knew I liked it but thought it smelled vaguely familiar. It didn't take more than a minute or so before I made the obvious connection to the perfume it was emulating -- my favorite, Portrait of a Lady by Frederic Malle. Many perfumes have tried to "go there," and have failed miserably in the process. The difference here is Meraviglia for the most part comes darn close. While I normally would just focus on the positive and negative subjective aspects of Meraviglia, it smells similar enough to PoaL that I find myself forced to compare the two throughout. To that end, Meraviglia has got the high quality jammy rose and patchouli combo found in PoaL down quite well, even adding in some peppery coriander spice to emulate the same kind of subtle peppery zing found in the original (albeit the peppery aspect is more prominent here). Where things fall apart just a hair, however, is in Meraviglia's use of synthetics for the woody-incense component in the heart. Using synthetics is nothing new in perfumery, and Portrait of a Lady uses them too. Here, they are just a bit out of control, with the woody incense *smelling* synthetic, although only just. The late dry-downs of the two perfumes are a bit different, with Meraviglia focusing much more on its amber aspect than Portrait of a Lady. It is a fine overall effort that comes up just a bit short in comparison with "the best of the best," but smells spectacular when considered on its own. The bottom line is the approximately $300 per 100ml bottle Meraviglia is one of only a couple perfumes that come close to successfully emulating my favorite perfume's winning formula, earning an "excellent" 4 stars out of 5 rating and a recommendation with some reservation. The only reservation is you can buy Portrait of a Lady for not much more money. That said, those who have a decent budget but not quite enough to afford the superior smelling Malle, and/or prefer less projection should be quite happy with Meraviglia.
